Is it just for our careers?

I ready MumOnTheRun's blog with interest today, and it got me to thinking about the reasons that we are all having less children much later. The media seem stuck on the notion that it is because we are putting our careers first. Carving out our place in the professional world before considering children. Whilst this must be true for some women, I can't help wondering if it really is the norm. For most childless women I know in their mid thirties this is not the reason. Modern lifestyle expectations and economic factors play a bigger role.

We are staying younger longer, studying longer, and wanting to experience more before settling down.....have more FUN. Perhaps we are more fussy about choosing our partners? Most of my peers did not settle with someone well into their late twenties-early thirties. Is this coincidence or are we just not ready to settle before then due to modern expectation?

And then financial security - most people I know would not consider having children before they were settled with a fair income and a roof over their heads - which is increasingly difficult with rising house prices. I am probably speaking about a rather middle class point of view, but this seems to be the norm in most cases I know -  in a wide range of professions from the professional through to the creative and manual.

It means that people are only getting to the point where they try to have kids when they are about 35 - and lets face it,  most people will only have one or two at that point if they are lucky. And this has nothing to do with them 'wanting a career first' or 'needing to establish themselves', as not everyone has these ambitions.

So I wonder if this idea about 'career women' and their ambition getting in the way of their production of children is a bit of a mis-interpretation?